MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrats made sweeping gains in state governments during the midterm elections, taking control of several legislatures and shifting the balance of power across some battleground and historically Republican-leaning states.
The party took full control — both statehouse chambers and governors' offices — in at least five states where they previously shared power.
The wins put pressure on the party to answer to an electorate angry over
the rising cost of living, high gas prices, inflation and the lack of affordable housing. State governments shape a wide array of policies affecting everyday lives, including tax rates and abortion rights, school choice and education funding, data center development, and the use of artificial intelligence and law enforcement surveillance cameras.
“Now it’s time to deliver,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Devin Remiker said.
Democrats succeeded in flipping both chambers of the Legislature in Wisconsin, breaking a 16-year Republican majority, and retained the governor's office.
They also won or retained full control of both chambers of the legislatures in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania and kept the governor's office — for trifectas in all three.
In Nevada, they gained control by winning the governor's seat and retaining the legislature.
There will be pressure on Democrats in Wisconsin and other battleground states to redraw congressional maps, just as President Donald Trump successfully urged eight Republican-led states to do ahead of this election. But that backfired, with Republicans losing most of the Democratic-held seats they had targeted to flip and others they had banked on winning.
The Republican congressional redistricting in Texas may have mobilized additional Democratic voters in some parts of the state who helped drive gains in the statehouse, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.
But “when we’re trying to think about why Democrats won, it’s one man in the White House and his policies — Donald Trump,” Jones said.
Even under maps that favored Republicans in Wisconsin, Democrats picked up two congressional seats in Tuesday's races. That means the state will have an evenly divided congressional delegation in 2027.
Democrats will also hold at least 28 governorships in 2027, with pickups in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Texas — states long held by Republicans.
And the party broke or prevented Republican supermajorities in nine legislative chambers in eight states: Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and North Carolina.
That means Republicans would need help from Democratic lawmakers to override a Democratic governor’s veto in Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina. The Associated Press has not called the governor’s race in Kansas.
The wins come after Democrats lost nearly 1,000 state legislative seats during President Barack Obama's tenure, a slide they've been trying to reverse for several cycles.
It's the biggest single-election change of partisan power in state governments since 2010, said Katie Owens Hubler, director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said the party won “historic levels of power in statehouses.” She said they hadn’t flipped this many seats nationwide since the 1980s.
“This election is about kitchen table issues, it’s about economic opportunities,” she said Wednesday. “That is what the mandate is about.”
She said Democrats will have to focus on issues that matter to middle-class voters such as improving educational opportunities and increasing access to healthcare, particularly in rural areas.
“They’re going to represent the middle class,” Williams said. “They are not going to work for a few billionaires.”
The cost of groceries, housing, healthcare, gas and utility bills were campaign talking points after legislative sessions packed with bills aiming to make life more affordable for Americans, while also providing tax relief and reining in data center development and the use of artificial intelligence.
The coming legislative session could see major efforts to lighten the tax burden on the middle class, relax housing regulations, expand access to healthcare, and force utilities and data center developers to do more to stop electricity bills from rising.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who won reelection, told his supporters Tuesday night that people want him and lawmakers to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, invest in infrastructure, kids, police and communities, and enshrine abortion rights for women in the state constitution.
Other newly elected governors, including Wisconsin's David Crowley and Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar, said they wanted to work with Republicans.
“I am not interested in moving Minnesota to the left or the right; I want to move us forward,” Klobuchar said.
She even had a warning for her Democratic supporters.
“Spoiler alert: You may not like every single thing I do,” she said.
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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and David Lieb in Washington contributed.
